What Do You Think About At Night?
by NerdGirlHappy
Summary: Second in my NYC, Rivalry, Dances and Second Chances Series. Shelby meets with Rachel, in a desperate hope to make her daughter understand, and to ask for another chance. Rachel finally sees the behind the walls Shelby's kept up. Can they get the Mother/Daughter relationship each so desperately crave?


**A/N: I seem to be on a roll tonight... Not really sure how I managed to get so much posted, but... I suppose there can't be any complaints, yeah? Anyway, I'm not sure whether I like this one more than the first one, but I think I like this one more than the third one, which is already finished and ready for uploading. Also... This has lots, and lot's of Dialogue.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.**

**This is the Second in my NYC, Rivalry, Dances and Second Chances Series. Hope you like it. Enjoy.**

**What Do You Think About At Night?**

It'd been two weeks since that day in the studio, and Shelby was sitting in a seat in a Starbucks just around the corner from NYADA. Her right leg was shaking, tapping her finger on the table as she looked around.

Rachel had told her that she'd meet her there at eleven thirty. It was almost ten to, and Shelby was beginning to think Rachel wouldn't show. Sighing, she looked down at the coffee cooling in her hand.

_She's not coming_

She was just about to text Cass and ask her whether she was sure Rachel wanted to meet with her, (for the twenty-sixth time), when a voice startled her.

"I'm so sorry! I'm usually very punctual, but we weren't allowed to leave until we perfected the tango. We've been learning it for the last six weeks."

Rachel collapsed in to the seat opposite Shelby, dressed in a tank top and some sweats, with her bag slung over her shoulder. She dropped the bag to the floor, groaning as she rubbed at her neck. Shelby had never seen Rachel so laid back, at least when it comes to her appearance, but she supposed Rachel had just been so swamped and exhausted that changing in to something more sophisticated was not in her thought path. Not that Shelby cared really.

"No, no, it's fine… Tango? That would be Cass's class yeah?"

Rachel nodded, still rubbing at her neck.

"Devil in fishnets."

Shelby laughed quietly as Rachel muttered. She didn't think she was supposed to hear that.

They settled in to a, somewhat, awkward silence, Shelby staring back in to her coffee while Rachel took up Shelby's previous activity, tapping a nail on the table. The silence slowly grew heavier, until Shelby felt that talking would be better than staring at inanimate objects.

"I'm sorry."

Rachel looked up at her, raising her eyebrow and cocking her head. Shelby continued to stare at her coffee, but at least the silence wasn't there. She couldn't bring herself to look at her daughter, not while she was letting go of the walls she'd built over the last eighteen years.

"I'm sorry for so many things. I'm sorry for leaving you. I know you had a great life with your dads, but I'm still sorry I walked away. And I'm sorry for doing it again when you were sixteen. I'm sorry for making the decision that you needed me, without actually thinking about what you wanted. I'm sorry for doing the same thing when it came to leaving. I came back your senior year, not just so Beth could know her birth parents, but also because I wanted to make amends with you. That didn't work how I wanted, and again I did it without any thought to what you wanted. I made so many mistakes, and all of them at your expense. I'm just… I'm so sorry."

Rachel remained silent as Shelby talked, watching as she bit her lip and closed her eyes on occasion. She studied the way her finger ran around the rim of her mug, the way her eyes flicked up occasionally to glimpse her before lowering again to continue speaking. Shelby fell quiet, waiting for Rachel to do… something. Talk, yell, walk away… But she kept quiet.

Rachel licked her lips, leaning forward, and putting her hand over Shelby's on the coffee mug. She'd been intent on simply listening, then walking away like Shelby had done to her so many times before. But, for some reason, she felt that Shelby, her mother, really, really did regret her past actions. And that she really wanted things to be okay between them.

Besides… She was in collage now. She was on her own, in New York. She was more or less an adult now. She needed to act like one.

"Jesse said to me once, I suppose it was his way of pointing me towards you, but what he said… I'm going to say it to you, although a little altered."

Shelby looked up, confused.

"What do you think about at night? When you're in bed, and you're thinking useless things until you fall asleep… What do you think about?"

Shelby opened her mouth, stumbling over words as she thought.

"Pokerface."

Rachel, confused and surprised, raised her eyebrow. She was sure Shelby would say Beth.

"Pokerface?"

Shelby nodded, shrugging her shoulder.

"When I'm completely exhausted from chasing Beth around, or marking papers. I think about Pokerface, and how it was such a stupid song to sing with my sixteen year old daughter and that it was completely inappropriate."

Rachel smiled, leaning back and letting go of Shelby's hand.

"Okay."

Shelby shook her head, lifting her hands from the coffee mug and holding them up.

"I'm… Confused."

Rachel took a deep breath, nodding once and folding her arms over her chest.

"Okay, I'm willing to give you one more shot. That's it. Strike three Shelby."

Shelby, despite the intense happiness and strange flutter in her heart, frowned, still very confused.

"I… All because I think of Pokerface when I'm exhausted, and how bad it was an idea to sing that with you?"

Rachel shrugged, waving at a server as they passed.

"Can I get a Vanilla Latte, two sugars, soy milk?"

The server nodded, writing down the order and leaving quickly after a 'thank you' from Rachel. Rachel smiled, looking back at Shelby and shrugging to her question.

"It's a weird thing to think about, don't get me wrong, but it's a song _we _sung together… The only song we sung together."

Shelby smiled, watching as Rachel thanked the server and took a sip of her latte.

"You walked away, because you thought I didn't need you." Shelby looked up, it now being Rachel's turn to stare in to her coffee. "But you were wrong. There was so much I still needed my mom for. I mean, there's only so much you can talk to your dad's about before things get too… awkward. I'm almost nineteen, and I do need my independence." She looked up now, staring at Shelby. "But I need, and I want, my mom. Probably now more than ever. Dad and Daddy… They're small town people at heart, they don't understand the big city. They certainly don't understand boys, at least from a girls point of view. So yes, I am giving you another shot. But I want you to know, if you're just going to walk away in a week, a month, I need to know now, because I am not going t put myself through that again."

Shelby shook her head, her lip trembling slightly. _God dammit, I'm Shelby Corcoran. I don't cry!_

"I swear, I won't leave. Not unless you ask me to. And even then you'll have trouble making me. I… I want us to have a relationship. I want Beth to have a sister."

Rachel smiled, thinking about the beautiful blonde little girl probably at a nanny's.

"I'd like that."

They fell in to a silence yet again, only this time it was comfortable, each brunette trying to soak up the presence of the other before one had to leave.

"So… boys?"

Rachel smiled, shaking her head as Shelby tried to make conversation. _Maybe this wouldn't be too bad… Who knows how'd she'd come out of this if it ended as horribly as it did the last time._

**A/N: Well... That was that. Shelby and Rachel's reunion. I think that Rachel was pretty grown up, but I think if it's not because she's on her own now and she's in Collage, or if it's because she's putting up a strong front in front of Shelby. whole, 'Pokerface was a really bad song to sing for a Mother/Daughter reunion' thing is actually borrowed form something Idina Menzel said. You can find it on her Barefoot at the Symphony DVD or on YouTube if oyu haven't seen it. Uhm... I don't think I have anything else to say so, I hope you liked it. Review it if you did. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see, tell me and I might consider writing it in my series. One-shots only of course. Anyway... That's about it... Laters...**


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